Black Hattitude

Black Hattitude

Jeffrey C Stewart

Publisher:

University of Minnesota Press

DOI:10.5749/minnesota/9780816675784.003.0012

This chapter considers the social implications of the black hat, when worn tilted or set in a “reckless angle”, on top of a Black head. It argues that the Black stylized hat can serve as a defensive armor or provocative affirmation. It allows a Black man or woman to assert him or herself as an individual despite the pressures to be reduced to a race, class, or gendered collectivity, and to resist the tendency of everyone in America to be turned into a commodity. Despite the protections of group identity, the rakish hat worn on a Black head suggests the ability, the freedom, and the confidence to dispense with all that for a second and impose her or his will on the world as a subject without peer.

Minnesota Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.